Diversification
Diversification provides another interest and income stream
By Cindy Benjamin
When Lawrence Bugeja attended a COMPASS course a few years ago it confirmed that he was managing erosion and riparian areas well. He also identified the opportunity to use legumes in rotation with cane and alpacas to better utilise the grassed areas of the farm.
"The wide, grassed waterways are well established around the farm and combined with green cane, fallow spray out and minimum till planting, we have almost no erosion on any of the farms," says Lawrence.
Lawrence farms in partnership with his parents and two brothers over five farms along and near the Pioneer River, west of Mackay. While each partner is responsible for particular farms they all work together, sharing their skills and ideas.
Currently the brothers are putting their efforts into on-farm trials of controlled traffic and break crops. Due to unseasonal rains during this year's planting, their planned one hectare trial of 1.8 metre rows alongside a one hectare block of their existing 1.5 metre row spacing will have to wait until next year. "We have decided to stay with a single row and have made a wider chute for our own planter," says Lawrence.
This year will also be the Bugeja's first year growing legume crops in the fallow. "We will plant soybeans on the flat blocks and Dolichus Lab Lab on the steeper blocks because Dolichus needs less water," says Lawrence. "Both will be grown for green manure, not grain."
Machinery modifications
The Bugeja family have a long history of on-farm machinery modification. "Our sheds have remnants of machines that show the changes we have made as we moved from burning cane and intensive cultivation to burnt cane trash incorporation then green cane trash blanketing and now wider rows and controlled traffic," says Lawrence.
"The conversion period is always costly as you adjust existing gear and buy new equipment," says Lawrence. "In addition to the planter modifications we have also modified our marking out gear, our spay gear and our fertiliser bin in preparation for the wider row trials."
Fallow management
The Bugeja's current fallow management system is to spray out the old ratoon and use chemical weed control to clean up grass weeds and nutgrass. To bring legumes into their fallow management program they will cut their old ratoon blocks early, spray for grass weeds, work in the green cane trash blanket and plant soybeans into the beds.
Water management
All their farms are fully irrigated though they have not had any allocation this year. They are hoping for some stream flow in the Pioneer River to store in their 250 megalitre turkey nest dam. This dam also stores all runoff from the farm.
Lawrence's home farms' have a 25 megalitre tailwater dam and access to the river. The fourth farm in the partnership relies solely on river water. All the farms have travelling irrigators with low pressure sprayline available when needed. A large percentage of the farm was laser levelled in the 1980s to improve the drainage and make the land suitable for floor irrigation.
"While flooding is energy efficient, it does use more water and there have been few opportunities to flood irrigate in the last few years," says Lawrence. "This year we didn't even plant in May due to a lack of water," says Lawrence.
The Bugejas plan to build a third tailwater dam to hold a further three megalitres and serve as a sediment trap and recycle pit. "We also hope to build other tailwater dams on exit points of the fourth farm," says Lawrence. "Our plans for an artificial wetland are on hold because our application for funding was not successful," says Lawrence. "It is an exciting project that has benefits for wildlife and water quality, so maybe we will be successful next time round."
Fertiliser management
The Bugeja family have used soil tests for many years to plan their fertiliser applications. "In the past, we took samples across each block but now we are taking samples specific to our soil types, sometimes two or three per block," says Lawrence. "This way we can better target our fertiliser and lime applications."
This year Lawrence is using liquid gypsum applied through specialised nozzles on his standard spray rig. This way he is able to apply gypsum to blocks that are too wet for the contract spreader to access. Liquid gypsum is applied when the came is about 30 cm high.
Varieties
Lawrence tries all the new cane varieties released in the district before deciding which ones to plant in any quantity. As the Director of Mackay Area Productivity Services, Lawrence has first hand knowledge of the characteristics of the new varieties and believes there are benefits in testing them on his own farm.
"We take into account all the variety's features including tonnage, sugar and disease resistance," says Lawrence. "Each variety performs differently on farms around the area, some growers will love a particular variety while others may find the same variety very disappointing. The performance of each variety can be very different on your farm compared to its performance in the variety breeding plots."
Good farm hygiene is important to the Bugeja's so they take care with the movement of soil and planting material around the farm. "We have seen first hand the impact of disease on the industry here and want to avoid it happening again," says Lawrence. "Harvesting our own cane across the five farms helps us keep contamination to a minimum."
Harvesting and machinery
Even though the Bugeja brothers manage their farms like a small cooperative they have found that the five farms need to have most of their own equipment. "We can share the harvesting and planting gear across the farms," says Lawrence. "But for everything else we all need to be doing the same thing on each of the farms at the same time, so there is not much opportunity for savings."
Diversification
Lawrence and Josie have chosen to diversify into alpacas because they are well suited to the riparian areas around the farm. "The alpacas are soft hoofed so they do not cause erosion and they will keep the grass down without damaging the trees," says Lawrence. "We have started with ten head on 2.5 hectares and plan to breed them up and expand onto a further three hectares."
The alpacas required a secure shelter shed and good fencing to protect them from dog attacks. Lawrence is developing a cell grazing system to manage the grass.
Industry involvement
Lawrence is very involved with industry committees and projects, believing that being involved keeps him informed and able to make good farming decisions. "Farm and business management projects like the Farm Productivity Improvement Program help growers to assess their financial performance and identify any opportunities for improvement," says Lawrence. "To be the best we can we need to take up challenges like these."
Lawrence is on several industry boards such as the Pioneer Water Cooperative, Mackay Canegrowers Executive and the Mackay Area Productivity Service. "Being on these industry committees is time consuming and sometimes stressful," says Lawrence. "There are lots of phone calls, many from growers who are finding the weather and industry conditions difficult to cope with."
Lawrence takes his support role to growers very seriously and is distressed by the circumstances in the industry that have lead to many growers finding work off farm. "This is hard on the families as the men either work their farms at night or on the weekend with little time for family activities or they leave a greater load of field work for their wives and children to bear," says Lawrence. "I don't know how long this situation can be sustained."
Labour and financial management
Josie and their three teenage daughters all help out with tractor driving, fertilising, irrigation and management of the alpacas. Lawrence and his brothers all enjoy machinery work and have found that they each have jobs they prefer to do, so one will usually do the oxy cutting and welding, another will do the machining, and one will do the painting. "Cooperation like this keeps the farm and the family together," says Lawrence.
The partnership books are done by Lawrence's sister-in-law. "We use our financial records to make decisions and do budgets," says Lawrence. "We look at the return on investment likely from changes like growing legume crops in the fallow, building water storages and implementing controlled traffic."
The Bugeja's also recognise non-financial benefits like less compaction and improved soil structure.
Environmental management
Lawrence is pleased with the way wildlife is flocking to the water storages on their farms. "The water in our run-off dams comes straight off our farm land and yet these storages are home to large numbers of birds, fish and turtles," he says. "I think this is evidence that water running off our farm land is not polluting the waterways."
The Bugeja's see farm layout as an opportunity for savings in harvesting and working costs, as well as erosion control. "Grassed waterways take up land but they make management of the farm easier," says Lawrence. "We de-silt the waterways after every crop cycle and re-establish the grass. We also purpose build haul-out tracks alongside waterways to avoid damaging the waterways during harvest."
Lawrence believes in working with nature and tries to retain trees around the farm. "We have stopped burning the riparian areas on the farm and the trees have started to grow back," he says. "This is where the alpacas come into the picture, keeping the grass under control and providing another interest and income stream."
